Barely more than a year before the 2014 midterm elections, the Democratic National Committee is struggling to pay off debt and rebuild its war chest while competing for donations with Organizing for America, the Web-based political group created from the remnants of President Obama’s re-election organization.

Since the 2012 presidential campaign, which cost almost $7 billion and was the most expensive in history, the DNC has been struggling with a debt load that stands at more than $18 million.

DNC press secretary Michael Czin said results of the 2012 election, which kept Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate, were worth the red ink. “We’re proud of what we did last year and we would do it again. With the result we had, we’d be crazy not to,” Mr. Czin said.

Some observers, however, are wondering whether the DNC debt could hurt Democrats in the midterm election campaigns — particularly if the DNC is losing donors to Mr. Obama’s Organizing for America